UNIVERSITY    OF   CALIFORNIA  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT   STATION 

COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE  BENJ>  |DE  Wheeler,  pres.dent 

BERKELEY,    CALIFORNIA       Thomas  Forsyth  Hunt,  Dean  and  Director 


CIRCULAR  No.  97 


INCREASING  DAIRY  PROFITS. 

By  H.  E.  Van  Norman. 

Profit  is  the  difference  between  cost  of  production  and  the  selling 
price.  To  insure  the  largest  profit  in  milk  production,  the  cow  owner 
must  know  that  each  cow  in  the  herd  is  producing  enough  milk  to 
pay  for  feed,  labor,  interest,  taxes  and  depreciation,  and  then  leave 
some  for  profit.  In  one  herd,  eleven  cows  produced  $200  worth  of 
butterfat  above  feed  cost,  while  four  others  ate  $20  worth  of  feed  more 
than  the  returns  for  their  butterfat  paid  for.  So  that  the  whole  fif- 
teen only  averaged  $15  each  above  cost  of  feed.  While,  if  the  man 
had  had  only  the  best  eleven,  he  would  have  had  $20  more  money, 
saved  the  feed  and  the  labor  of  handling.  The  only  certain  way  in 
which  these  "robber"  cows  can  be  located  is  by  yearly  records  of 
milk  production.  No  man  has  yet  been  found  who  can  guess  accu- 
rately on  every  cow  in  a  herd.  Records  may  be  made  by  the  owner, 
or  by  several  joining  together  in  a  cow  test  association,  and  employing 
a  man  to  do  the  work. 

Having  located  the  unprofitable  cows,  and  eliminated  them,  their 
places  can  be  filled  in  a  few  cases  by  purchase.  The  prices  are  getting 
high.  The  best  way  is  through  the  purchase  of  a  pure-bred  sire  from 
a  profitable  cow,  and  the  saving  of  his  daughters  out  of  the  best  cows 
in  the  herd.  Each  community  should  adopt  one  breed  and  all  buy 
sires  of  the  same  breed.  In  a  short  time  the  grade  surplus  stock  will 
command  from  $10  to  $50  a  piece  above  the  common  scrub  stock,  be- 
cause of  the  large  amount  of  it  to  be  found  in  one  community  and  the 
reputation  they  will  acquire  for  breeding  that  one  class  of  stock. 

Profits  can  usually  be  increased  by  better  feeding.  Each  cow  must 
have  enough  food— first,  to  maintain  herself;  second,  with  wThich  to 
make  the  milk  she  yields,  and  any  surplus  above  this  is  stored  up  in 
the  form  of  fat  to  be  used  later  when  she  don't  get  enough  food.  The 
cow  that  has  the  ability  to  produce  forty  pounds  of  milk  a  day,  and  is 
only  fed  enough  to  make  twenty-five  or  thirty  pounds  a  day,  does  not 
make  milk  as  cheap  as  she  would  when  fed  to  her  capacity.  In  the 
judgment  of  the  writer,  the  dairy  cow  that  has  the  ability  to  make 
thirty  pounds  of  milk  a  day,  or  better,  cannot  eat  enough  alfalfa  hay 
to  enable  her  to  do  her  best  work,  and  she  should  be  fed  some  form  of 
grain  or  by-product  concentrate  low  in  protein  to  supplement  the 
alfalfa  hay  eaten.  Every  cow  must  have  enough  feed.  The  feed  she 
does  eat  must  contain  the  minimum  amount  of  protein  required  for 
her  maintenance  and  for  production  of  milk.  An  insufficient  amount 
of  feed  limits  production,  an  insufficient  amount  of  protein  limits  pro- 
duction. 


